The Complete Story of the Grail: Chr騁ien de Troyes' Perceval and Its Continuations (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781843844006)

The mysterious and haunting Grail makes its first appearance in literature in Chr騁ien de Troyes' Perceval at the end of the twelfth century. But Chr騁ien never finished his poem, leaving an unresolved story and an incomplete picture of the Grail. It was, however, far too attractive an idea to leave. Not only did it inspire quite separate works; his own unfinished poem was continued and finally completed by no fewer than four other writers.
The Complete Story of the Grail is the first ever translation of the whole of the rich and compelling body of tales contained in Chr騁ien's poem and its four Continuations, which are finally attracting the scholarly attention they deserve. Besides Chr騁ien's original text, there are the anonymous First Continuation (translated here in its fullest version), the Second Continuation attributed to Wauchier de Denain, and the intriguing Third and Fourth Continuations - probably written simultaneously, with no knowledge of each other's work - by Manessier and Gerbert de Montreuil. Two other poets were drawn to create preludes explaining the background to Chr騁ien's story, and translated here also are their works: The Elucidation Prologue and Bliocadran.
Only in this, The Story of the Grail's complete form, can the reader appreciate the narrative skill and invention of the medieval poets and their surprising responses to Chr騁ien's theme - not least their crucial focus on the knight as a crusader. Equally, Chr騁ien's original poem was almost always copied in conjunction withone or more of the Continuations, so this translation represents how most medieval readers would have encountered it.

Nigel Bryant's previous translations from Medieval French include Perlesvaus - the High Bookof the Grail, Robert de Boron's trilogy Merlin and the Grail, the Medieval Romance of Alexander, The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel and Perceforest.

Author: Chr騁ien de Troyes
ISBN-10: 1843844001
ISBN-13: 9781843844006
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Language: English
Published: 04/01/2015
Pages: 634
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 2.65lbs
Size: 9.61h x 6.69w x 1.38d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 09/01/2015